Homes… Your Thoughts… Old or New?

[ultrarunner]

I’ve lived in homes as old as 1910 and as new as 1993…

In many ways I think I dodged a bullet with older as I’ve seen some really bad new construction build quality on brand new development homes friends bought in Arizona and Texas…

All have had conflict around the new home builder warranties and some as far as class action suits.

My first home, a tract home built in 1922 was original and well crafted selling new with detached garage $2,800… some have sold for as much as 900k a hundred years later.

My friends with new home problems cite shoddy workmanship as number one and materials number two.

 

[2manyrocks]

Overpriced trendy TV show influenced on postage stamp size lots. Even worse, I see what appear to be three story mining shacks so they can squeeze as many as possible on lots that used to have one single family homes on them in Nashville.

 

[MossRoad]

There're some things to be said about a new house....

Windows and doors that seal and insulate as well as operate correctly.
Thick, well insulated walls and ceilings.
Adequate electrical power.
Efficient HVAC and appliances.
Proper plumbing.
Roof and siding that's going to last 30+ years.
Etc....

With that said, we live in a house for the past 30 years that was built in 1921, with an addition from the 50's. There have been many remodels before we did our own remodel. There are several walls that have no insulation. Balloon construction means open wall from basement to attic. Great way for fires to spread and varmints to traverse. Anytime we opened a wall for electrical work, we just tore off the whole wall and insulated while we had the chance. Drywall isn't very expensive and I did the work myself. The windows are original. Took quite a bit of work to make them work properly. Added storm windows and screens. New roof. New siding. Lots of electrical updates were required. Plumbing issues that had to be resolved. Etc...

So pros and cons to both new and old.

 

[FullMetalBucket]

I bought some land thinking when we move in a few years I don’t want to buy someone else’s problem and I’ll build new. But now now prices are so high on new construction, you’ll spend 400k building a 300k house. I may have to rethink my plan.

 

[2manyrocks]

There're some things to be said about a new house....

Windows and doors that seal and insulate as well as operate correctly.
Thick, well insulated walls and ceilings.
Adequate electrical power.
Efficient HVAC and appliances.
Proper plumbing.
Roof and siding that's going to last 30+ years.
Etc....

With that said, we live in a house for the past 30 years that was built in 1921, with an addition from the 50's. There have been many remodels before we did our own remodel. There are several walls that have no insulation. Balloon construction means open wall from basement to attic. Great way for fires to spread and varmints to traverse. Anytime we opened a wall for electrical work, we just tore off the whole wall and insulated while we had the chance. Drywall isn't very expensive and I did the work myself. The windows are original. Took quite a bit of work to make them work properly. Added storm windows and screens. New roof. New siding. Lots of electrical updates were required. Plumbing issues that had to be resolved. Etc...

So pros and cons to both new and old.

Sorry to say that I brought a 1960s house that was built like a brick (same well regarded contractor built several of them in different areas in our community) and have seen newer homes built like a shed. Literally the 1960s house doors/windows all operated fine. Trim was cut and hand nailed solidly. Today's trim is shot in place with thin gauge trim nails and often joints caulked to hide the gaps. Exteriors aren't brick. They tend to be sheet goods made to resemble board and batten siding and/or vinyl siding. HVAC systems rely on flex duct not metal.

Not saying all better then/now, but saying each house has to be evaluated on its own merits.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

We now live in a 1942 old farmhouse built by my wife's grandfather, father and uncles when they cam back from the war.

FIL harvested some wood from the farm and redid the kitchen and den with oak and cedar.

Before moving in we had metal roof put on, new windows and an HVAC system where they was NONE before (well the ducts were still in place but the old oil furnace had been gone some 40+ yrs ago, swapped out for a solar/wood water heating system that died some 25 ish yrs ago). New wiring in the 90's and 2000's. New pex plumbing put in about 3 yrs ago, including having all pipes insulated. Renovated the bathroom before moving in as well.

The wood that you can see in the framing, the age lines are tightly together. It has an upstairs and an attic that runs parallel to the two rooms upstairs. Upstairs is pretty much only used for storage now.

We moved out of a 2600 sft log house I built (I was the GC but did all but build the foundation, stack the logs and roof) on our family property a few miles away. Traded it to my son for some land here at the farm. We are still adjusting to consolidating to a smaller house from the other 2 (we also owned a river house, sold it in 2022).

Both had their pluses and minuses. Our current house is energy starved. Adding more circuits is next to impossible. I have resorted to using the compact breakers, but you can only do so many of those. The energy bill averages about $125 a month. This house is only about 1500 sft and easier for wife and I.

 

[deserteagle71]

There're some things to be said about a new house....

Windows and doors that seal and insulate as well as operate correctly.
Thick, well insulated walls and ceilings.
Adequate electrical power.
Efficient HVAC and appliances.
Proper plumbing.
Roof and siding that's going to last 30+ years.
Etc....

Good luck in finding a new house built that well...that you can afford to buy. Seems to me you'd have to spec out exactly what you wanted in the house and then find a builder who would build it just that way. Too many new homes these days are built on the cheap......

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Our abode is a well built house from 1955 that had a small addition on the back, 975 sqft. rancher. It has good bones and for the first 8 years I lived in it I had very little issues other than a few plumbing snafus. Got it for a GREAT price right when houses in this neighborhood began to skyrocket so I have lots of equity in it over the last 9 years.

This past year I added an 850 sqft addition and pretty much completely redid the entire existing house, making it a 3br/3ba 1800ish sqft. All new plumbing, new roof, mostly new electrical, new kitchen, new appliances, redid bathroom plus added another for a total of 3, some floor leveling and new subfloor, drainage, gutters, etc. At 50 years old I am hoping I don't have to do much to it for the rest of my days. Might do new windows in the existing after the financial sting of this construction phase wears off. Our family of 3 LOVES our new space and it will be all we need for the rest of our lives. Oh yeah, added a 24x28 detached garage to it 4 years ago, really been enjoying that. Our son of 13 is a pretty sentimental guy and I think he would be into living here after we are done with it. I hope to be able to leave it to him when we move on.

 

[Shenandoah MF1760]

I'm in the process of having a new home built. The cost for a new 3000 sqft home is crazy.

This will be a single story and doesn't have any of those high vaulted rooms. But the rooms are large with 9' ceilings. The walls and attic ceiling are all spray foam insulation making the house a type of igloo in terms of being insulated. It's a custom home builder doing the work, and he only does a single home at a time. No one I talked to has had a bad work to say about him.

I lived in a converted 1880's schoolhouse and have nearly froze to death in the winter, same with my turn of the century brick house with plaster on lathe, single pane windows and when they switched from gas lighting to electric they put in four 15A fuses. Heat was originally coal converted to natural gas with one of those "octopus" furnaces. It did have a on-demand gas water heater that looked like the worlds skinniest franklin stove that was wonderful.

My current home is a late 70's tract home. The drywall appears to have been installed by drunken junior achievement kids, and all of the paint is coming off. Nothing sticks to it! The plumbing is a mixture of PCV and PBC and the original electric service was 100A. The house has needed to be leveled twice and the driveway replaced. Definitely not the high point in home construction.

 

[Jstpssng]

There are proa and cons of each. Even a prefab has it's merits. A new house is likely to be better insulated, and you can have it built the way that you want. We are in the process of cleaning out the house which my grandfather had built in 1927. The story is that he paid extra to buy 27' rafters and have them delivered. While he was working, the carpenter cut his special order rafters to a shorter length.

If Eddie Walker was building it, I would go with a new house.